NEW DELHI: India's Covid-19 infections, led by the Omicron variant, may see a sharp rise in the coming weeks, some top experts said, noting that the variant was already in community transmission and hospitals were seeing more patients despite a decline in cases in major cities, report agencies.  

India reported 306,064 new infections over the last 24 hours, the health ministry said, about an 8% decline from the average daily cases reported in the last four days. Deaths were 439, the lowest in five days.

"Omicron is now in community transmission in India and has become dominant in multiple metros," a report by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) said on Jan. 10 in a report released on Sunday.